Fighting rages near Gaza hospitals

JERUSALEM/GAZA — Heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants continued outside hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee as Hamas says it is ready to release 50 hostages for a five-day cease-fire.

After days of airstrikes around Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, witnesses told AFP that Israeli tanks and armored vehicles were meters from the besieged facility, which has become a focal point of the five-week-old conflict.

The director of Al-Shifa said on Tuesday that 179 people, including babies and patients who died in the intensive care unit, had been buried in a mass grave at the complex.

"We were forced to bury them in a mass grave," said Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiyah, adding that seven babies and 29 intensive care patients were among those buried after hospital fuel supplies ran out.

"There are bodies littered in the hospital complex and there is no longer electricity at the morgues," he said.

The United Nations believes that thousands, and perhaps more than 10,000 people, patients, staff and displaced civilians, may be inside and unable to escape because of fierce fighting nearby.

Israel denied it was attacking hospitals. An Israeli military spokesperson said that the intense battles against Hamas currently "include the area surrounding the Al-Shifa hospital but not the hospital itself".

The military also said it was coordinating the transfer of incubators into Gaza, in a possible measure to enable the evacuation of newborn babies from the hospital.

The Red Cross was attempting on Monday to evacuate some 6,000 patients, staff and displaced people from another hospital, Al-Quds, after it shut down for lack of fuel, but the Red Cross said its convoy had to turn back because of shelling and fighting.

Israel says the facilities are used as headquarters by Hamas fighters who are using patients as shields.

Hamas denies the Israeli claim.

On Monday, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that it has informed mediators of its readiness to release 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a five-day cease-fire.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for Al-Qassam Brigades, said in a message on its Telegram channel that "Qatari mediators have made efforts to release Israeli detainees in exchange for releasing 200 Palestinian children and 75 women".

He stressed that the cease-fire should ensure a halt to hostilities and allow aid to reach Gazans.

He emphasized that the continued Israeli ground, naval and aerial aggression threatens the lives of the detainees held by them and by other armed Palestinian factions in Gaza.

Mounting pressure

Israel is facing increasing pressure from international bodies and worldwide mass protests, urging a ceasefire and the protection of civilians.

"The pressure (on Israel) is not very high, but it is increasing," Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told journalists in a briefing earlier in the day.

In his first comments since the patient deaths reported at Al-Shifa, US President Joe Biden said hospitals must be protected.

"My hope and expectation is that there will be less intrusive action relative to hospitals and we remain in contact with the Israelis," Biden told reporters on Monday.

At the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, flags flew at half-staff at UN facilities across the globe, as staff stood in silent tribute to the more than 100 colleagues killed in Gaza during the conflict.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres led UN personnel in observing a minute of silence.

"Since the start of this conflict, more than 100 UNRWA staff have lost their lives," he posted on X, formerly Twitter, along with a photograph of senior UN officials somberly standing in silence.

The UN Agency for Supporting Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA, said on Monday that 102 of its employees had died and 27 had been injured in the Gaza Strip since the conflict erupted just over a month ago, the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in the body's history, according to the agency.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning expressed deep condolences to the UN staff members who lost their lives in this round of conflict.

Answering questions about the situation of Chinese citizens in Gaza, Mao said at a daily news briefing that Chinese diplomatic agencies abroad have been maintaining contact with Chinese citizens in the Gaza Strip, and all relevant personnel had safely left Gaza recently.

Agencies - Xinhua